Roma organizations meet with Czech President Klaus

Ivan Veselý, chair of the Dženo association, and Petr Tulia, chair of the Democratic Alliance of Roma, told the Czech Press Agency after a meeting at Prague Castle today that representatives of Roma associations and organizations working in the Czech Republic have asked Czech President Václav Klaus to help them move the government toward addressing Roma issues. Since taking office, Czech PM Petr Nečas (ODS) was said to have not responded to a request for a meeting with the groups. The associations say there is no partner with whom they might negotiate at the government level.

“Mr President understands the situation. He understands it is difficult, and he wants to discuss the topic of Roma with PM Nečas at one of their regular lunches in January,” Veselý said. He believes Klaus also intends to discuss the position of Roma with regional governors. “We wrote to the PM sometime this summer and to this day we have not even received a response to our letter,” Veselý said. The Roma want to be “active and visible” Tulia added. “We want to work, we do not want society to allege we only draw welfare, to have a negative view of us, but in order to get rid of this negativity, we must have a partner to work with. The government should realize this,” he said.

Since the departure of former Czech Human Rights Commissioner Michael Kocáb, the Nečas government has yet to select a successor. According to Veselý, Roma organizations have no information as to what the PM wants to do with the government body that has human rights and minorities as its agenda. “We don’t know how he wants to set up that body, so we can’t even talk about who might lead it,” Veselý said.

According to today’s Právo, the future concept of the Human Rights Section at the Office of the Czech Government is to be developed by former Green Party MP Kateřina Jacques. The paper says she might be tapped for the next Human Rights Commissioner.

Veselý says the representatives of Roma organizations agreed with the President that the government programs for aid to the Roma are well-written and what is missing is the competency and will to implement them. “For example, the labor market protections that should be here do not exist, and Roma are essentially even pushed out of unqualified jobs. Cheap labor, or to exaggerate a bit, slaves from the East, have pushed Roma out of those jobs,” Veselý said.

According to statistics, roughly 180 000 Roma live in the Czech Republic, comprising about 1.6 % of the population. The results of recent research by the STEM agency show that most Czechs have a very bad relationship toward the Roma, perceiving them as an “inadaptable” group and a source of crime. Roma in the Czech Republic have experienced attacks by extremists. Recently a court in Ostrava sentenced four extremists to extraordinary prison sentences for an arson attack committed last year on the home of a Roma family in Vítkov, during which a little girl not quite two years old was seriously injured. Several similar attacks in the past have resulted in deaths.